Sunday, October 19, 2008

Link Journalism: The Future of News

The Decline of Print
Newspapers used to be the main medium for news. People would look at newspapers for what was important in the world, according to Scott Karp in "How Newspapers Abdicated the Front Page's Influence and How They Can Get it Back by Linking." He says, "Newspapers were once THE most important filters for news." However, they lost that when the Internet came around.

Newspapers circulation continues to drop. According to an annual report on journalism, newspapers ended with 8.4% less circulation in 2007. They continue to lose readers to the Internet:
  • Regular consumption for news online is growing.
  • “Eight in 10 Americans 17 and older now say the Internet is a critical source of information – up 66% in 2006.”
  • Around 75% of the people who go online go on the Internet to find news.
This trends have gotten people to start thinking about how newspapers and traditional media can survive.

What They Should Do
People like Karp believe newspapers can get back into the business by using link journalism. He says, "the power of influence lies in the ability to FILTER the vast sea of news." By only providing readers with links, news organizations will be able to tell readers what is the most important current event.

That's why Karp believes sites by Drudge are doing so well. They only give people links to important news articles. Practicing link journalism will allow newspapers to become dominant once again:

"Yahoo became a huge force for driving traffic when it started featuring links from Yahoo Buzz on its homepage. Imagine the NYT, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and all of the mainstream news sites that still dominate news on the web all getting into the linking game."

Link journalism also creates a contagious social environment. It's easy to share links to stories, videos and pictures. And when people share links, everyone who gets it feels "in the loop."

Resistance

Newspapers were initially reluctant to use link journalism. They didn't want to link to their competitors. They wanted readers to stay on their website, so sending them somewhere totally defeated that purpose.

They instead focused on local news online. Newspapers also concentrated on providing other media content like pictures and videos. For example, many stories online for the LA Times start with a video and then launch into the story. Adding more multimedia can make a print story more interesting. People have short attention spans. They don't want to sit for several minutes and read something. Media that use pictures and video can keep a person's attention longer than printed words.

The Problem with Not Using Links

Karp says people who don't link lose influence on the web. Many more people are going to the web these days. Anyone can start a blog and gain a following. There will always be someone interested in that topic in your blog. And a following can't be created if there aren't links people can share with others. Therefore, creating a strong presence on the web can be easy, BUT it requires linking.

Furthermore, focusing on local news online doesn't make sense, Karp says. When something is on the Internet, it can be accessed by everyone, not just the people who it pertains to. So it really isn't "local" news. It's also not important to everyone. Not all will care about what's going on in Bristol, Conneticut, especially if they don't live there. The only way local news websites can become nationally important is every other news site links to it.

So bottom line according to Karp? Link journalism will give newspapers the dominance it once had. It creates buzz around certain articles because links can be passed along really quickly. Therefore, social networking is automatically created.

The Advantages of Link Journalism

  1. It connects people. By providing a link, you tell other people what else is important. You also save them time from having to go through other news sites or search engines to find related articles. It also literally can connect people to others. Facebook and MySpace are good examples. They let you click to see other people's profiles, pictures, etc., even if you're not friends with them.
  2. It sends readers to other sites. This was seen as a bad thing to do. Why would you want to send people to your competitors? However, by linking to trustworthy, reliable news sites, you can show you have your readers best interest at heart. If they find your news site always directs them to helpful places, they will keep coming back.
  3. It tests your ability to create interesting headlines. When headlines are all you have to grab people in, it forces you to use your creativity. You need to catch their attention with the title.
  4. It makes articles easy to access, especially if you decide to read them later. Instead of having to bookmark the page, you can just copy and paste the link somewhere. Then, whenever you're ready to read the article, just pull up that document with the link and you'll be reading the story in no time.
  5. It creates excitement. People don't know what to expect from clicking on the link, so they could be surprised in a good or bad way. The thought of not knowing what will happen usually creates some sort of excitement in people.
What I Think
So while Karp makes a good argument for using link journalism, what will happen if links are all we have? The term journalism will be changed once again. Can we really call someone who just posts links a journalist? I mean, they aren't actually writing anything. All they're doing is copy and pasting.

Furthermore, the role of an editor will become less important. If all journalists have to do is link to sites that have related articles, editors just need to double check the link to make sure it's a reliable source. They don't need to sit down and read through the story to make sure everything is correct. Someone else should have already done that.

However, this can make people lazy. If they get into the mindset that someone else will write the article for them, it may get to the point where nothing is available because everyone else thinks someone else is doing it. This is an extreme, but something to think about. Where would people get information if no one does the work?

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